The connection between culture and economic growth is a complicated one – made particularly difficult by the fact that cultures change far more slowly than patterns in economic growth. Regardless, this column is remarkable for being a concise argument for … Continue reading →

Recent evidence from Derek Headey at IFPRI on the impact of the food price crisis using self-reported levels of food-insecurity. Abstract We provide the first large-scale survey-based evidence on the impact of the global food crisis of 2007–08 using an … Continue reading →

This week in micro theory we are focused on adverse selection. A current article in VoxEU looks at the issue of information asymmetry in capital markets, and finds the evidence one might expect – information asymmetries increase the cost of … Continue reading →

Tomorrow in the International Policy class, we are focused on food policy issues – so the column by the Director-General of the FAO today in Project Syndicate is very topical. The key point is that “The Council of the United … Continue reading →

A new paper exploring the link between aid and governance, by Arinow, Carnegie and Marinov. abstract Does foreign aid promote good governance in recipient countries? We help arbitrate the debate over this question by leveraging a novel source of exogeneity: … Continue reading →

The quality of manufactured goods, both directly, and in terms of perceived environmental or social costs involved in manufacturing are interesting issues of incomplete information. Two related papers that might be of interest to EC470 students thinking about paper topics: … Continue reading →

Today in EC307, I was discussing changes in fertility and population growth, in relation to economic growth. For students (or others) interested in the topic, here is a recent literature survey on the topic. The Historical Fertility Transition: A Guide … Continue reading →

A primarily empirical paper about the multi-task principal problem that we will be looking at in a theoretical context in EC470. A key message of the paper: “In sum, the results indicate that a teacher’s effect on test scores and … Continue reading →